Thursday, April 19, 2012

OK. There's not actually any free ice cream. Sorry about that. But people don't want to hear about the Doomsday Budget anymore. We are all weary of the fighting in the legislature and worrying about what it means for our schools. We're all busy, too, and hoping someone else will take care of the problem.

I wish it could happen that way, but does it ever?

Please take a moment to read on . . .

1. Board of Education president, Jennifer Seidel, and Superintendent Guthrie are giving us (the public) an opportunity to meet with them and learn more about this issue and how it affects our schools. We really should take them up on their offer. Learn about it. Get involved. Take advantage of opportunities to be part of the discussion. (I know. You're busy. You have a million places to go tonight. I completely understand! I'm in the same boat. Make time anyway. How can we complain later if we didn't make the time to be involved in the first place? I'll see you there!)

The meeting is TONIGHT (April 19th) at 7:00pm at Shiloh Middle School.

2. There is no doubt in my mind that music and the arts will be affected by cuts. They always are. Part of me says "Every groups needs to do their part and take one for the team, for the greater good, even music." Another part of me says "Music has already been cut and most people don't even know it. Several music teacher positions have disappeared during the past 5 years as people retired and their positions were not filled or as administrators made tough choices about staffing allocations. All of the high school programs that I know fund themselves almost completely, with very little financial support from the county." I hope that our school system officials recognize that music has already faced these cuts and chooses to look elsewhere. If our music programs have to "take one for the team" then I hope others programs will bear that burden in equal measure so that all may survive.

3. Advocacy works! If we educate ourselves about this issue and respectfully take part in the dialog, we can be part of the solution.